


A Divine Interlude

by lacrimalis



Series: Vessels of Void and Fire [3]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game)
Genre: Content Warning: Divine is a Weirdo, Gen, Genderless Protagonist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-10 22:46:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15959174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lacrimalis/pseuds/lacrimalis
Summary: The Knight pays a visit to Divine.Divine makes it weird.





	A Divine Interlude

**Author's Note:**

> This didn't quite fit in the next installment, which is already pretty long, so I made it its own work to keep things organized! You don't have to read this one to understand the rest of the series.
> 
> Thank you guys for your patience!

Divine inhaled, her breath a thready wisp. “That _is_ a sweet smell, but it is not the one that calls to me. The one I seek is fragile... _vulnerable...”_ She said the word as if savoring it.

The Knight looked down in consideration. They had chosen to while away the hours by getting to know the rest of the Grimm Troupe. Divine was off-putting and strange, but the Knight tried to set that aside. 

After all, _all_ the Troupe’s members were strange -- yet Grimm and the Knight had recently reached something like mutual understanding. And in learning the dance, which the Knight had once believed to be disorganized and erratic and which they now understood to have an underpinning logic and elegance all its own, it was easier to see the same qualities in the other members of the Grimm Troupe.

The Knight couldn’t contribute much to a dialogue, but Divine was eager enough to carry the conversation: she had been curious about the smell of something the Knight had been carrying, and the Knight had decided to humor her by trying to figure out what it was.

But now they were at a loss. The only thing they owned with a powerful enough odor for her to smell -- while they weren’t even _wearing_ it -- was the Defender’s Crest. Or so they thought – but now that they had it affixed to their cloak, Divine had made it clear it wasn’t what she was interested in. The Knight put their mind to the puzzle. The Grimmchild cooed encouragingly at their elbow.

For one thing, Divine’s response to the Defender’s Crest was interesting. Every other bug they’d met thought the odor was repugnant, except the oblivious Dung Defender himself, and...

And Leg Eater.

The Knight produced the Fragile charms from the clutter of their collection. The Grimmchild and Divine chittered with excitement.

“Yesss!” Divine hissed, her milky white eyes sparkling with desire. “Won’t you let me see one? Let me tassste?”

The Knight wasn’t sure what to make of this request. They looked down at the three charms. Fragile Strength they still used, and though they didn’t often find a use for Fragile Heart, the fact that Leg Eater claimed to have made it for _them_ (so the Knight would stop breaking the other two charms he’d sold them, probably) gave it emotional weight that prevented the Knight from handing it over. That only left one.

The Knight offered her Fragile Greed.

Divine seized it in her forelegs, rolling it around on her feelers and rubbing her face on it and sighing. “Ah, yesss... Somewhere far below, I can sense it calling me...”

The Knight stood patiently while Divine inspected the charm.

Then she swallowed it.

The Knight stumbled back in alarm. Why had she done _that?_ _!_

Divine purred with open pleasure, stroking her face and abdomen with her forelegs. She looked down at the Knight, who had barely moved but was nonetheless broadcasting their emotions loudly enough for her to notice. “What? You want it back? Tch! You can’t take back a gift. How rude!”

The Knight didn’t recall agreeing to _give_ the charm to Divine – although really, with the strangeness of the Troupe’s behavior, perhaps they should have known better than to hand over something they cared about even a little. Still, they were upset. What if they wanted to use the charm later? Leg Eater never seemed to have spare charms lying around before, so they might not even be able to get it replaced. That aside, the termite already took personal offense when the Knight  _broke_ one of his charms. They couldn’t bear to imagine how upset the bug would be when he found out they had lost one altogether.

Divine sighed dramatically, as if feeling put-upon by the Knight’s distress. “If you really want it, bring me geo. If you do that... I’ll show you something special.”

The Knight deflated. Of course. The resemblance was obvious now.

Divine and Leg Eater were perfect for each other.

* * *

Wrapped up in their frustration at having to take a trip to sell off their relics, the Knight had forgotten to remove the Defender’s Crest before they went to visit the Relic Seeker, and the Knight and Grimmchild were turned away at the door. They had to backtrack until they found a room absent of husks to sort through their charms and put the Defender’s Crest away properly. They probably could have taken it off at any time, but with the threat of husks around each corner, they might have dropped it. And as much ill luck as the trinket had brought them, it was still a token of Ogrim’s respect. The Knight didn’t want to risk losing it by being careless.

The Relic Seeker narrowed his eyes when the Knight returned, but accepted their relics as readily as any other the Knight had brought him (after indiscreetly sniffing a traveler’s journal to make sure it didn’t smell of dung beetle).

The Knight returned to Divine with the geo, where they bore witness to a nauseating biological process that they would just as soon like to forget.

But the Knight had their charm back, and they breathed a sigh of relief to have it returned to them, albeit changed: its brilliance and texture, which had been occluded by a milky white coat reminiscent of Leg Eater’s eyes, now shone vividly in the red light of Divine’s tent. Before, holding the Fragile charm had felt like cradling an egg in one hand while trying to fight and climb with the other.

Now it had a reassuring weight and heft to it, its shell hard. The Knight could tell just from looking at it that it would never break.

“Now you have so many tasty charms, and I have none,” Divine complained with a pout. “Won’t you give me another?”

The Knight held the newly returned charm close to their chest, hunching their shoulders defensively.

Divine laughed her raspy, alluring laugh. “Fine, fine...” Then she tilted her head, and the Knight got the impression she was winking, despite only having one eye visible. “At least bring my charm back to the tasty morsel you got it from, won’t you? I would have him come to me...”

At this, the Knight realized that more than breaking or losing Leg Eater’s charms, the termite might be most offended at the Knight transforming it into something completely different.

They left Divine’s tent, walking slowly as they lost themselves in thought.

They would put off visiting Leg Eater for as long as possible.


End file.
